What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by mark-r on Sunday January 10, 2021 @08:12PM (#25722851)

That's a good theory, but it doesn't always work that way. I was working on the most profitable product the company had, but was laid off anyway. The new 6 month CTO had a new idea for how software development should be done and I wasn't part of it. Meanwhile at my prior job in IT my boss begged me to stay, I think because I made him look good.

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by abalashov on Sunday January 10, 2021 @09:07PM (#25723383)

Can relate to the latter. I've left about half a dozen jobs before striking out on my own, and the places where my boss actively pleaded with me to stay were places where I was definitely an operations cost centre and a galaxy away from anything resembling a profit centre or a revenue driver.

Politics. I was competent, precocious, energetic, participated in many meetings and liaised with lots of teams with which people in my position don't usually liaise, bailed out some people in other parts of the business with unexpected skill sets and initiative, and made the manager look good.

Meanwhile, the one job I was actually fired - not laid off - from, I was sitting very close to the money train.

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by pm90 on Sunday January 10, 2021 @09:37PM (#25723646)

The money train is usually the part of the company that attracts the wrong kinds of people. They know it’s the easiest way to succeed: by being part of the team that brings in a lot of revenue. It becomes easier to show your “contributions” in monetary terms even if you may have not been directly responsible for that. As a result, these competitive types will also try to remove anyone who isn’t an “ally” regardless of whether these people provide value to the business.

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by yowlingcat on Monday January 11, 2021 @04:53AM (#25726795)

> The money train is usually the part of the company that attracts the wrong kinds of people.

Waiting for it...

> As a result, these competitive types will also try to remove anyone who isn’t an “ally” regardless of whether these people provide value to the business.

Ah, there it is. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, and let me tell you, the kool-aid is no longer so sweet. The money train is often just a mobile coliseum. There's no escaping the gladiator aspects role. It's disappointing.

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by wolco5 on Monday January 11, 2021 @12:03AM (#25724765)

I've found if you are good at your position being part of the cost centre operation side means you will be left alone and ignored. Because of that you are less likely to be promoted. The profit side often gets random kudos, awards and probably bigger salaries.

For me being unimportant enough that money spent on a scrum master doesn't make sense is the right work-life balance.

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